


as the fog rolls in

by demonglass



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, M/M, ride or die renhyuck is my favorite aesthetic, they're deeply in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:02:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26331604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demonglass/pseuds/demonglass
Summary: This is how he's always known it would be: the two of them, until the end of the line. Donghyuck and Renjun together.
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Lee Donghyuck | Haechan
Comments: 14
Kudos: 63





	as the fog rolls in

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sunbeamjd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunbeamjd/gifts).



> [vibes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7VlZFwfDPI)

This is it, Donghyuck realizes.

They reach the bulkhead doors and the paint is almost all flaked off, the wood cracked and crumbling. It won't do them any good. Renjun throws the doors open and dust flies into the air, up from the darkness dug into the ground along with the thick smell of must and rot.

Renjun doesn't miss a beat in grabbing Donghyuck's hand and dragging him down, into the earth. Donghyuck pulls the doors shut behind them with shaking hands, but he knows it doesn't matter, because light cuts through where the old wood is worn down, and if light can make it through, there's no way the doors will hold out the oncoming storm.

The stairs are rickety under their feet as they descend with precious little grace, creaking and groaning. If either of them steps wrong, Donghyuck knows the stairs will give out under the weight—send him or Renjun or the both of them crashing down all the way to the very bottom together.

Renjun's steps are panicked, but sure, and Donghyuck follows him with a vice grip on his hand. This is how he's always known it would be: the two of them, until the end of the line. Donghyuck following Renjun all the way to the end of the world.

In the darkness, breathing the stale, wet air in sweeping lungfuls, they reach the last step, and Donghyuck's feet hit hard ground. He can't tell if it's packed earth or concrete, but it doesn't much matter. Renjun is a step ahead, and he makes it to the bunker door first, hands hitting the old metal loud enough for the bang to echo in the small space.

Donghyuck comes up beside him, and they're four eyes straining in the near-dark, four hands scrambling for a handle. Two hearts leaping into throats when Donghyuck finds the handle and wrenches and it doesn't give even a little bit. Renjun grabs too, shakes and pounds at the unforgiving metal, at the last thing in the world standing between them and a temporary sanctuary, but it's fruitless.

The door is barred—locked or jammed or rusted shut, but the details don't matter. All that matters is that the door won't give way, and Donghyuck and Renjun are trapped on the wrong side of it.

Renjun is on fire, made of flames and burning with desperation to live, to _keep_ living. He doesn't stop banging on the door, trying to wrestle it into submission, but Donghyuck's hands fall to his sides. Renjun's fists hitting metal echo again and again, bouncing off the cement walls, the busted wood overhead, the cold ground.

When Renjun cries out in frustration, in panic, in _agony_ because he doesn't want to accept that this is _it_ , the cry echoes too. This tomb, this shared grave, holds the sound, holds that last flicker of life, holds their last breaths.

And Donghyuck doesn't want those lasts to be like this—to hurt and burn and _ache_ like nothing else. He takes both Renjun's hands in his, wrapping bloodied knuckles and trembling fingers safe in his own shaking hands. He pulls Renjun close and kisses him right on the mouth to quiet his cries, and the kiss tastes like salt, more love and devastation than Donghyuck could ever put into words.

This is it, Donghyuck knows.

Any moment, the acid fog will reach them, and they've got nowhere left to run, no way out this time. He's followed Renjun this far, run with him across the end of the world, made it farther than he ever would have alone, but now it's over. They can't run together anymore. This is as far as they can go.

"Hey," he says, voice shaking and quiet. It's hard to get the words out when his throat is closing up with fear, when the animal in him that wants nothing more than to _live_ is clawing desperately at him, screaming for him to keep fighting even though there's nothing left to fight, no way to take on nature as it looms over him, right on the edge of crashing.

Renjun's eyes flash in a thin spot of light. He already knows what Donghyuck's going to say. He knows what's coming, and he's as terrified as Donghyuck is. Just as desperate and destroyed by the truth.

"I love you," Donghyuck says thickly, blinking once and then letting his eyes sting as he keeps them open because he doesn't want to miss another second of Renjun glowing faintly in the light of the end of the world. He wants to memorize this, wants Renjun to be the last thing he ever sees.

Renjun slips his hands free from Donghyuck's to clutch his face, thumbs against Donghyuck's cheeks smearing blood there, but so gentle even now that it doesn't matter in the slightest. Donghyuck welcomes the touch like always. Renjun presses his forehead to Donghyuck's, inhaling deeply as Donghyuck wraps his arms around his waist and pulls their bodies flush together.

"I love you, Donghyuck," Renjun breathes. "I wish I could save you." His voice breaks and he presses a wet kiss to the corner of Donghyuck's lips.

Any moment now, the fog will be on top of them, will slip through the cracks in the bulkhead doors and flood this small, dark grave of theirs. Will burn their skin and pour down their throats, clog their lungs until they can't breathe any longer.

But just now, just in _this_ moment, they still have time. Just enough time for this.

"I know," Donghyuck says. He's always known. "But you did." When Renjun tries to protest, Donghyuck shakes his head. They're both crying, but it doesn't matter. All that matters is this: "I'll see you again," Donghyuck whispers, promises. "Whatever comes after—I'll find you."

There's a sob in Donghyuck's chest, one bursting from Renjun's lips too.

Any second now.

"I love you." They say it as one. One confession for two hearts; one fate for the both of them. 

And then Donghyuck kisses Renjun again, and he knows this is it. There are worse ways to die, he supposes, than with love in his heart and in his arms and hot on his lips.

This is what he's always known. This is all that's ever mattered. Even at the very end, it's the two of them together.

Not even in death do they part.

_( There's the deafening sound of metal grinding on metal, dragging against concrete, and just before the everything clouds over and the fog swallows it all whole, there's light. Donghyuck and Renjun don't pause to question it; they just go—out of the darkness and through the open door, together, they run. )_


End file.
